James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

18 comments:

Mucha doesn't get the credit he deserves for being such a good painter in my book. Following up on your Rockwell photo topic. Mucha used photography extensively and that was the early 1900's or before. There are couple of books of his photos out there that are really eye opening. It would be easy to think that he just made up those beautiful art nouveau women, but to me at least it is even more impressive to see what he did with pretty mundane looking photo reference.

I believe they are housed in a castle - Mucha lived and painted in a castle just before the second World War broke out. I had the opportunity to see an exhibit of his work in Memphis several years ago. It literally took your breath away - I went back as often as I could and did sketches.

I've only seen him in the books I own. I was moderately at peace a few years later. Just trying to absorb his draughtsmanship, his product designs, his paintings,sculpture and graphics! Now, I see the work at the actual scale (knees weak) (slight nausea). What it must have been like in that gallery with so many ... Thank you for posting this!

Mucha's last years were not very good.He was pretty much forgotten as a painter and went on painting classical work which by the way he thought was the only pure art.

He spent his last years painting and being involved with politics. He designed currency and other official documents for the new Czec government. When the nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, (he was a Slav and was very nationalistic) they arrested him and he died in prison from pneumonia.

The rising tide of fascism in the late 1930s led to Mucha's works, as well as his Slavic nationalism, being denounced in the press as 'reactionary'. When German troops marched into Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first people to be arrested by the Gestapo. During the course of the interrogation the aging artist fell ill with pneumonia. Though eventually released, he never recovered from the strain of this event, or seeing his home invaded and overcome. He died in Prague on July 14, 1939 of a lung infection, and was interred there in the Vyšehrad cemetery. [3]

I managed to see these paintings while I was in Moravsky Krumlov. If you'd like, I could send you some detail photos of these paintings. Some of the paintings he left unfinished, but the drawing and color on these are an excellent representation of his skill.

The Slav Epic was absolutey the most amazing group of paintings that I have ever seen in person. My wife and I traveled to the small museum in Moravsky Krumlov to see them and it blew my mind. He is one of the great painters of all time (yes, illustrators are painters, too). It was amazing, we were able to view these paintings so closely....we just had to wear big slippers over our shoes to keep the dust down. Also, he used canvases from sails to paint on because they were so big.

Thank you for posting this, James. I love your blog and I love your work. You are truly an inspiration to me.